Happy (Almost) Valentine’s Day, Faux Spring, and Thinking About Changes in Seattle’s Lit Scene

early pink rhododendron

Happy (Almost) Valentine’s Day!

We had a beautiful sunny day today, and Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a rainout, so we tried to get out and about and soak in as much “faux spring” – that’s what our weather person called it – as we could. I heard a robin singing this morning, and downtown, I saw a forsythia blooming (though ours hasn’t quite done that yet).

With the Superbowl AND the Olympics, it seems to be a sports-crowded time to celebrate what’s traditionally a romantic weekend! That’s okay. I’m pretty sure we can have Glenn watch the Bengals (hopefully – they’re the team of my former hometown, Cincinnati) win, have me watch some figure skating (so much scandal this year!), and also find a way to carve out time for some romance.

We took a trip over to Seattle to Open Books to buy a few books before it moves from Wallingford to Pioneer Square -a big change after 20 plus years in the same location. It made me think about how much Seattle’s lit scene has changed since we moved here in late 2000.

I also goofed around with possible author photo outfits (did I mention I have author photos for BOA coming up and I’m terrified?) with Glenn taking the pictures with our “fancy” camera. What do you think? Do either of these tops work? I think this hair color is a bit too rose gold – I think I’ll skew it a bit pinker for the photos. Argh! How do regular poets do this? Pictures are hard!

Glenn and I in the sunshine, Kirkland

Faux Spring in February

It’s already felt like a too-long, gloomy winter, and many of my friends have already traveled at least once to sunnier climes to relieve their winter blues. I can’t do that yet, so getting a little bit of 50-degree sunshine in February is a real gift. A few rhododendrons and forsythia blooms, and I can’t wait ’til the cherry trees start blooming.

The birds are definitely more active than they were a few weeks ago. This forsythia was blooming a door down from Open Books. Walking along Lake Washington in Kirkland is a nice break from cloudier, moodier Woodinville. We also picked up pink roses and tulips to brighten up the house so it felt a bit more romantic and spring-like.

Kelly Davio and I in front of Open Books in 2010

Thinking About Seattle’s Changing Literary Scene

Yes, our trip today to Open Books – the first place I visited as a tourist to Seattle on the recommendation of one of my English professors at University of Cincinnati – reminded me of how things have changed since we moved here. Pioneer Square – a rowdier, bar-filled tourist spot that once housed Elliot Bay Books – will be the new home of Open Books, which lived in sleepier, more residential Wallingford since before I came to the town as a visitor. Elliot Bay moved to hipster – but now more “corporate condo” than “hipster artists and bars” – Capitol Hill. I used to meet friends at Open Books – see pictures – and I’ve had almost every launch reading for my books there, too. See a picture of one of them below. I’ll have to make new memories at the new location.

Book Launch in 2011 with a bunch of friends, Open Books

I used to spend hours in the rundown former funeral home that housed the Richard Hugo House when I first moved to town, imaging I was in a real artist’s place – and then I volunteered there for small local lit mags for a while. Back then, yes, there were drug deals in front of the place, it wasn’t at all accessible, and there was a rumor of a baby ghost in the basement (along with a baby’s coffin) but it felt charmingly quirky, much like the area of Capitol Hill, where you could get a drink at a dive bar with pinball machines or papier mache unicorn heads. Now, Hugo House is housed in the fairly cold, corporate grounds of a re-done condo building (and paying much more than it used to on rent, which leads to more fund-raising and less, well, artist-nurturing), and it just doesn’t feel as cozy and welcoming and well, artistic. It is more accessible (bonus!) and has bathrooms you don’t accidentally get locked in…and no ghosts (yet…)

The places that I’ve relied on to meet other writers – like Open Books and Hugo House – are changing, and have changed, and while I’m sad about that, I recognize that a city doesn’t stay the same, and a literary scene doesn’t stay the same. During the pandemic, we haven’t visited Seattle much, and we used to go every weekend, to hang out, to visit Pike Place Market or one of the many bookstores and coffee shops, always exploring new (to us) neighborhoods. Seattle’s increasing homeless problem, litter, and crime are unfortunate side effects of growth and some serious housing affordability problems as well as a lack of resources for the poor, the mentally ill, and people who age out of the foster system. Our politicians have promised fixes but haven’t (as yet) delivered. Does this affect the art scene in Seattle? Yes. Did the pandemic hurt our art scene? Unquestionable. Do we have AWP coming out next year? Yes we do! Do I want to show Seattle in its best light to my friends who come to town? Yes I do! So I will keep exploring to find out where writers and artists are hanging out now. Maybe I’ll find the next new cool artistic hangouts. I hope so.

And another problem – I live in an “ex-urb” of Seattle, Woodinville, a sleepy area of farms and wineries and a surprising number of hidden charming corners, but it has almost nothing that you could call “culture.” No art galleries, barely any indie shops, we have one Barnes and Nobles and a couple of coffee shops besides Starbucks but it’s been hard for me to build a community out here – and I encountered similar problems in 2012 when I was Redmond’s Poet Laureate, working hard with schools and librarians and visual artists and local language clubs to try to generate interest in poetry and art. Even though Redmond has Microsoft and a fair number of millionaires, and Bellevue’s real estate is now more expensive than Manhattan (said our local paper this weekend,) it’s tough to attract people or the funds to create cultural centers where art, music, theater, and poetry might thrive. I’ve dreamed of throwing salons in the area, which is beautiful, and I’m sure has a lot of artists, musicians, and writers in it, it’s just…I can’t find them, or we have no gathering places.

If I had unlimited funds and time, I might build a poetry bookshop/coffee shop/art space myself here in Woodinville, where real estate isn’t quite as pricey. I lived in Napa for a year, and they had a wonderful mix of wineries, indie book shops and restaurants, and unique gardens, farms, and markets that just made for a lovely quality of life. (Fires, earthquakes, and high taxes – all endemic to California – notwithstanding.) They even had their own writer’s conference each year! We need to start something like that. I’ll keep dreaming…